a philosopher's sketchbook

How to Press Olives, Part 3

I must admit: this trio of posts is overwrought. Other writers have already covered the issue of managing personal finances to produce a state of financial independence (and early retirement), and while I agree with much of their writing (e.g. Early Retirement Extreme, Mr. Money Mustache, Brave New Live), I feel increasingly less inspired to recreate the wheel with my trope surrounding Thales. Thales is far too bad-ass to be stuffed into a journalistic series that belongs on a segment for Market Place Money. I won’t denigrate his writing and Aristotle’s hagiography of him further. Consequently, if you want to read part three of this series, pick up a copy of Early Retirement Extreme, or read the bloggers mentioned above. They’ll teach you how to manage your money well, and then you can find a copy of Thales’ extant fragments and read Aristotle without any trite commentary. As Jacob Fisker said in his book, and in his last post on his blog, the subject of financial independence isn’t terribly difficult to master, nor do I think it’s terribly difficult to describe clearly. Since others have already done that, I intend to explore other subjects that still need elaboration.